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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/11/2020 - Regular Agenda Packet - Comprehensive Plan Evaluation Committee AGENDA COMPREHENSIVE PLAN EVALUATION COMMITTEE Tuesday, August 11, 2020, 6:00 PM Virtual Meeting via Zoom By Computer: https://zoom.us/j/95592992544?pwd=U1oxSFFOalp6UENQZkhDc1lsblk3QT09 By Phone: 888-475-4499 US and enter Webinar ID: 955 9299 2544 and Password: 941704 A quorum of the College Station City Council or the College Station Planning and Zoning Commission may or may not be present at this meeting. 1. Call the meeting to order. 2. Consideration, discussion and possible action to approve meeting Minutes.  July 13, 2020  July 14, 2020 3. Presentation and discussion of public input from the virtual Community Choices Workshop. 4. Presentation and discussion of the Evaluation and Appraisal Report working draft. 5. Presentation and discussion outlining next steps in the Evaluation process. 6. Adjourn. I certify that the above Notice of Meeting was posted at College Station City Hall, 1101 Texas Avenue, College Station, Texas, on August 7, 2020 at 5:00 p.m. CITY OF COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS By_________________________________ City Secretary This building is wheelchair accessible. Persons with disabilities who plan to attend this meeting and who may need accommodations, auxiliary aids, or services such as interpreters, readers, or large print are asked to contact the City Secretary’s Office at (979) 764-3541, TDD at 1-800- 735-2989, or email adaassistance@cstx.gov at least two business days prior to the meeting so that appropriate arrangements can be made. If the City does not receive notification at least two business days prior to the meeting, the City will make a reasonable attempt to provide the necessary accommodations. Penal Code § 30.07. Trespass by License Holder With an Openly Carried Handgun. “Pursuant to Section 30.07, Penal Code (trespass by license holder with an openly carried handgun), a person licensed under Subchapter H, Chapter 411, Government Code (handgun licensing law), may not enter this property with a handgun that is carried openly” Codigo Penal §30.07. Trespasar Portando Armas de Mano al Aire Libre con Licencia. “Conforme a la Seccion 30.07 del codigo penal (traspasar portando armas de mano al aire libre con licencia), personas con licencia bajo del Sub-Capitulo H, Capitulo 411, Codigo de Gobierno (Ley de licencias de arma de mano), no deben entrar a esta propiedad portando arma de mano al aire libre” MINUTES COMPREHENSIVE PLAN EVALUATION COMMITTEE Monday, July 13, 2020, 6:00 PM Virtual meeting via Zoom COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Brian Bochner, Brad Brimley, Michael Buckley, Elizabeth Cunha, Shana Elliott, Joe Guerra, Lisa Halperin, Linda Harvell, Dennis Maloney, John Nichols, Jeremy Osborne, and Julie Schultz COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: Clint Cooper CITY STAFF PRESENT: Assistant City Manager and Interim Director of Planning and Development Services Jennifer Prochazka, Transportation Planning Coordinator Jason Schubert, Long Range Planning Administrator Alyssa Halle-Schramm, Staff Planner Jade Broadnax and Staff Assistant Robin Macias 1. Call the meeting to order. The meeting was called to order at 6:02 p.m. 2. Consideration, discussion, and possible action to approve meeting minutes. The committee had no corrections to the minutes. 3. Update and discussion on the public input process. Long Range Planning Administrator Alyssa Halle-Schramm stated that the virtual Community Choices Workshop website was launched this morning. She sent links to the committee so they could share with their personal networks. Committee member Cunha asked if there was a link for the Census in the workshop. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm stated that the Census information was in two different places during the workshop to help cross-promote Census participation. Committee member Cunha thought the workshop was a time commitment, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. She also stated that there are places where you are required to put a comment in some of the fields. 4. Presentation and discussion of the Evaluation and Appraisal Report working draft with focus on the chapter goals and actions. Committee member Harvell brought up concerns regarding the City’s future due to COVID-19. She would like the report to address some of the situations and problems we are currently facing. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm explained to the committee that there are initiatives through Community Services and Economic Development to help get federal relief funds to the community. She stated that the chapter regarding Economic Development tried to capture the economic impacts. There was general discussion regarding COVID-19 planning. Are there ways we can update the document that help the city be more prepared for unknown circumstances? Is there anything in the Comprehensive Plan that we are missing? Planning Next consultant Jamie Greene recommended we look at resiliency and what are we doing to promote resiliency planning. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm discussed that there may be an opportunity to add new actions that aren’t within the current document by keeping an eye on trends and data as it becomes more available. There was concern that if the City does not do something to address COVID within this document it may appear that we are ignoring what people are going through. This could be done as a statement in the beginning or through other action items. We may also want to look at economic input and update what our plans are. Staff discussed that the Economic Development Master Plan was just updated in May 2020 and they are closely monitoring the impacts COVID may have on the five year plan. Planning Next said the City should be sensitive to what is going on while also being confident in the City’s future. The City will still have a future after COVID and it’s prudent to plan for that future, despite the current unknowns. It may be appropriate to monitor changes/track data in transportation, work environment and recreation and how the Comprehensive Plan can accommodate changes in these patterns in the future. There was discussion amongst the committee regarding each chapter. Chapter 2 Planning Next consultant Michael Curtis explained the formatting of the chapters. He stated that within each chapter there are a series of action items. The strategic action section of each chapter are a combination of new items or items that should be priority going forward. The ongoing actions are things the city is doing and will continue to do to implement the Comprehensive Plan. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm highlighted the following items: 2.2 – Prioritize Detailed planning efforts for specific areas - The scenario planning activity may help determine which areas should have future planning efforts - This item could possibly be considered for COVID related changes or priority areas 2.3 – Revised version of existing item. 2.6 – Current concept map within the plan hasn’t been fully utilized in its current capacity; many of the concept map features are incorporated in the proposed future land use categories 2.8 – Continue to evaluate the effectiveness of UDO standards - This item could possibly be a COVID related discussion regarding the regulation of businesses. Committee member Schultz stated to consider expediting processes or looking at reductions in requirements. 2.10 – Encourage parking alternatives and structured parking 2.11 – Continue proactive zoning map updates and City initiated rezonings. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm stated this could also be used to help businesses by taking the cost and time of rezoning the property away from the developer. There was concern about the vacant tenant spaces. Maybe there could be incentives given to businesses to reuse current vacant space. We should be more concerned with redevelopment versus new development. We should bring some type of family activities to the area. Chapter 3 Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm highlighted the following items: 3.1 – Continue to look at UDO to look at compatibility standards 3.2 – Create a neighborhood planning toolkit for neighborhood-initiated items. These are smaller action items that a neighborhood wants to take on and the City would support it. 3.5 & 3.6 – Data monitoring and looking at trends, will be particularly important as more COVID impacts are felt and tracked. 3.7 – Evaluate the relevancy of current neighborhood plans • There was concern about what will happen when a plan is beyond it’s planning horizon. This is a new action to address that concern and formalize a process. There was concern about the Wellborn Community still wanting to be rural and if their plan is expiring a new or updated one should be implemented. There was concern with the neighborhood plans not being fully implemented which can be discouraging to citizens. The committee felt it was important to involve the neighborhoods in neighborhood planning and to manage expectations let them know why it may take a long time to get things done. Chapter 4 There is a new write up regarding the economic impact of COVID-19 and a paragraph that summarizes the current Economic Development Master Plan. • The committee recommended adding one sentence or clarification to support, retention and development of local existing businesses. We may need to focus on businesses that aren’t dependent on the university and students. Chapter 5 5.1 – Making connections between parks and recreation facilities 5.2 – Feasibility of riparian buffer standards along waterways • There was concern that the buffer along floodplain may be redundant. • There was concern that the floodplains may be outdated and that protection against flooding events may not be sufficient. • May want to look at sentence following the statement and make some changes 5.3 – Combination of two items in the current plan to highlight more investment in our existing parks specifically smaller neighborhood parks • Move this item to ongoing 5.4 – Committee member Cunha likes the idea of volunteers. Would like to see some language on how volunteers are utilized to help with city functions and events. 5.7 – Continuing to secure land for parks and protect sensitive areas 5.10 – Amending ordinance to protect natural features and set aside parkland 5.15 – Arts and tourism. Experience BCS is splitting and tourism functions will be within the city’s Economic Development department • There was some concern with perception that we are only going to be promoting College Station and not the region. We will be doing regional marketing. • Promote Wolf Pen Creek and Northgate as live music destination. Group them together instead of as separate actions. • We should utilize what we have. Bring in our own festivals and entertainment is a good option. Good use of hotel occupancy tax funds to bring someone into town that will bring visitors. • We should also use Wolf Pen as a way to promote local talent. • Move this item to strategic There was concern that recreational programming wasn’t mentioned much. There should be more emphasis of parks programming into goals. Planning Administrator Halle- Schramm stated she would speak with the Parks department regarding if programming can be better incorporated into these goals. 5. Presentation and discussion outlining next steps in the Evaluation process. The next CPEC meeting is tomorrow night, July 14. The discussion with continue for Chapters 6-10. 6. Adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m. MINUTES COMPREHENSIVE PLAN EVALUATION COMMITTEE Tuesday, July 14, 2020, 6:00 PM Virtual meeting via Zoom COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Brian Bochner, Brad Brimley, Michael Buckley, Elizabeth Cunha, Shana Elliott, Joe Guerra, Lisa Halperin, Linda Harvell, Dennis Maloney, John Nichols, Jeremy Osborne, and Julie Schultz COMMITTEE MEMBERS ABSENT: Clint Cooper CITY STAFF PRESENT: Assistant City Manager and Interim Director of Planning and Development Services Jennifer Prochazka, Transportation Planning Coordinator Jason Schubert, Long Range Planning Administrator Alyssa Halle-Schramm, Staff Planner Jade Broadnax and Staff Assistant Robin Macias 1. Call the meeting to order. The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m. 2. Presentation and discussion of the Evaluation and Appraisal Report working draft with focus on the chapter goals and actions. Planning Next consultant Michael Curtis gave an update regarding committee member concern with combining the land use categories General Suburban and Restricted Suburban into one land use category named Suburban Residential. Since the two categories have the same intent, the idea was to combine the categories in order to simplify the map. There would still be two distinct zoning categories and a process where these categories would apply on the map. Not everyplace that is Restricted Suburban on the future land use map today would be changed to Suburban Residential. This would be looked during the Comprehensive Plan update. The concern with combining the two categories was that this could create an impact regarding the densities. Where would the deficiencies be and where would we need the capacity? There was also concern that an exercise wasn’t done regarding the density. There needs to be thoughtful consideration on what gets changed on the land use map. Transportation Planning Coordinator Jason Schubert explained that land use designations are not a one-for-one relationship with zoning. While Suburban Residential would allow for either zoning category it doesn’t mean it would get approved. He also explained that combining these categories does not change the current zoning designations. Planning Next consultant Michael Curtis said we could adjust the definition of Suburban Residential to make sure that it reflects both densities. Chapter 6 Transportation Planning Coordinator Schubert highlighted the following items: 6.1 – Implement context sensitive roadway designs 6.2 – Evaluate Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA) requirements • There was support for this item in regards to the inclusion of internal site elements in relation to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. 6.3 – Enhancements to intersections, including roundabouts where appropriate. • There was support for roundabouts and the city’s roundabout policy. • There was concern about using crosswalks on the roundabout when walking or biking. There may need to be a different design to the roundabout to make them more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. 6.4 – Streetscaping improvements within gateways and images corridors 6.5 – Conduct a Thoroughfare Plan audit. • There was support for this item. The committee felt like we always need to reevaluate areas. • There was concern regarding the word congestion. Should there be parameters or definition of what congestion actually is? 6.7 – Funding for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and safety improvements 6.8 – Implement best management practices for bicycle and pedestrian use • There was support for including these bicycle/pedestrian actions in Chapter 6 to broaden it to “mobility.” Chapter 7 Long Range Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm highlighted the following actions: 7.1 – Prioritizing utility and services improvements in existing areas (infill and redevelopment) 7.3 – Achieving multiple city objectives through coordinated infrastructure projects. Investing in city projects and infrastructure to create a real “wow factor.” 7.4 – Evaluating the utilization of community paramedicine. • Does this include mental health and social services situations that require intervention that may not necessarily require EMT services? Maybe this would relieve the police requirement of having to respond to everything. Halle-Schramm will follow up with EMS/Fire to clarify the full scope of community paramedicine. 7.18 – Design City facilities and infrastructure to incorporate sustainable and resilient practices. • Is this something just for city facilities or for private development? Halle-Schramm explained that it is mainly presented for city facilities but could be an open discussion. Private development sustainability and resiliency is incorporated in Chapter 2. • Should we offer incentives to better incentivize conservation? • We should try to use some examples or partnerships with A&M for landscaping and conservation ideas. Chapter 8 Long Range Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm highlighted the following actions: 8.1 – Prioritize infrastructure investments in strategic redevelopment areas \ 8.2 – Amend the zoning map and consider incentives to encourage infill and redevelopment • Look at using the RDD overlay district more; this may require amendments to the UDO to include more significant incentives 8.3 – Evaluate impacts fees that provide revenues to support infrastructure demands 8.4-8.6 – These have now been vetted by city staff and the City Manager’s Office. Changes from the Texas legislature limit the ability of cities to annex. The City will use a combination of the water/sanitary sewer extension policy, development agreements, and municipal utility districts (MUDs) to meet defined growth goals. • Some concern about having a workable annexation policy that is consistent with legislation and growth goals. • We need something more explicit regarding thoughtful policy development. Look at maintaining authority in ETJ and MUD districts. • Continue to look for other ways to incentivize annexation Chapter 9 9.1-9.5 – These highlight our strategic actions with Texas A&M • Try to get A&M more involved in the planning efforts. Find some mutually beneficial actions. • General consensus to include more proactive and stronger language in these actions. • How could our City management participate on A&M boards to know what is happening on campus? • Could we get a University/City agreement or updated agreement(s)? Be bolder in the statements. • How do we become knowledgeable about what A&M is planning to do? • Planning Next will help provide stronger language for these actions based on their experience with other university / city relationships. 9.8 – Coordinate with CSISD. • Include the International Leadership of Texas School and public charter schools in this action 9.9 – Continue participation in regional transportation initiatives. • Add Brazos County Regional Mobility Authority to list Chapter 10 This chapter highlights how we will implement the plan. The current table 9.1 will be updated to reflect the final actions that stem from the Comprehensive Plan update. 3. Presentation and discussion outlining next steps in the Evaluation process. Planning Administrator Halle-Schramm gave a presentation regarding the next steps. • The virtual Community Choices Workshop is open until August 3rd. We need CPEC members to continue to spread the word through their networks. • The next Comprehensive Plan Committee meeting will be August 11th. This meeting will focus on the public input gathered from the virtual workshop. • The joint City Council and P&Z meeting will be August 28th • There will be another CPEC meeting September 2nd 4. Adjourn. The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m.